"He's not a born salesman but if you left him with me for long enough I think he'd be less s***," claims Lee. Lee films Robert for one of his promotional videos He tells Robert to have a "flash bang entry", throw in a couple of specification gags in the middle then give the viewers all the information they need. Next up he meets confident salesman Lee, also known as 'The Van Man', who gives Robert a crash course in online sales videos. He's got real talent, he works hard, he's exactly the sort of person we should be encouraging but clearly something is going wrong somewhere." "No one can sit and listen to that conversation and not be upset. "I wanted to give you somer comfort I've heard what you said, it has registered and clearly I can't ignore it," says Robert, who admits he would be disappointed to lose him from the group. He's been very honest with me and I haven't been honest," says Robert.ĭeciding now is the time to reveal who he is, Robert tells Gervan that what he said really upset him and explains he is in fact Robert Forrester. "He's clearly very upset and has the right to be as it's distressing.
Gervan explains it's actually his last month at the company as he handed his notice in and walks out of the room in tears.
"Instead of asking me if everything was alright it was, 'What are you doing you haven't sold a car for nine days, you might as well go home. Gervan reveals he didn't sell a car for nine days while having personal issues at home, but instead of getting support he was given harsh verbal abuse. He also explains that the managers are under pressure and admits they can take it out on the staff as he gets very emotional. Gervan admits it's a high pressure job and that on paper it's good to have targets, but in reality it "feels like the world is coming down on you" when you are struggling. Robert is impressed by Gervan's sales technique, how he builds up a relationship with the customer and makes sure they get the right car.īut Robert flounders when given the opportunity to make a sale and is criticised for not being up beat enough and loses customers. Hilariously, Gervan has absolutely no idea who 'Tom' really is and even mentions Robert by name, saying he wears a tie identical to the one he has on and shows him a photo of his CEO. In Nottingham, Robert starts working with salesman Gervan, who is told he is taking part in a documentary about people changing career after losing their job in the pandemic. "If someone is successively not hitting their targets then there is a problem then we need to understand it and potentially take action. They have league tables with high performing salespeople in green and those not hitting their targets in red to single them out. With the average family car now costing £20,000 it hasn't been easy to convince customers to part with their cash. Robert wants to find out if customers are coming back to his dealerships so starts off by spending time with the most crucial part of his business - sales. His stunned family actually think he looks younger after his drastic transformation - and his son compares him to Harry Potter's best pal Ron Weasley. Wife Helen says the self-confessed 'date geek' trusts the numbers over his own feelings and intuition, so he may be in for a shock.įor his undercover journey, Robert adopts the persona of history lecturer called Tom Gough who is looking for a career change amid the pandemic.
Whilst other businesses were downsizing, he saw an opportunity and went on a shopping spree, purchasing 30 new dealerships and investing millions of pounds of shareholders' money.Īs a "temperature check" to see if the business is in the right place to expand, Robert is going undercover to make sure his company is in the right position to expand. However, he decided to mount the fightback by taking a massive gamble to become the biggest and best automotive dealer in the UK. When the Coronavirus pandemic hit, Robert was forced to close 139 UK dealerships, furlough 5,000 members of the workforce and lost £20million from the business in just two months. Some people would probably say I have no idea what it's like on the shop floor."Īs an Oxford University graduate he likes to do things by the book and believes employees need to be influenced rather than forced. "I've been in the business 20 years but I have never done a customer facing role. Get the n ews you want straight to your inbox.
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